Murdochs have lost $1bn from stock free-fall due to scandal. British PM’s former communications director arrested. Americablog has perspective.
(Quoting Financial Times)
The value of the Murdoch family’s shareholding in News Corp has fallen by $1bn since the political firestorm erupted over the phone-hacking scandal at the News of the World.And from blog post:
Imagine the field day that Fox News, and Rupert Murdoch himself, would have had had Dan Pfeiffer, Obama's communications director, been arrested for his involvement in a scandal of this magnitude.
I know you know that's right.
A 2nd London police official quits in scandal Yahoo News. Good background article. Read the whole thing. Excerpts:
Scotland Yard's assistant commissioner resigned Monday, a day after his boss also quit, and fresh investigations of possible police wrongdoing were launched in the phone hacking scandal that has spread from Rupert Murdoch's media empire to the British prime minister's office.
Prime Minister David Cameron called an emergency session of Parliament on the scandal and cut short his visit to Africa to try to contain the widening crisis. Lawmakers on Tuesday are to question Murdoch, his son James and Rebekah Brooks, the former chief executive of Murdoch's U.K. newspaper arm.
On the eve of the televised Parliament hearing, News Corp. board member Thomas Perkins said that CEO Rupert Murdoch has the full support of the company's board of directors. Perkins said the board is not considering elevating Chief Operating Officer Chase Carey to replace Murdoch. (This has already changed: Maybe.)
Tuesday Could Be Rupert Murdoch’s Last Day as CEO From Gawker, in the "Rumors" file..
How bad are things looking for News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch in the wake of the News of the World phone hacking scandal? This bad: If he screws up enough during Tuesday's parliamentary hearing, he may be replaced as CEO by jauntily-mustachioed COO Chase Carey.
Even if he stepped down as CEO, Murdoch would remain chairman, and retain the dirigible from which he directs his steam-powered robot army. But it'd a major blow to his hold on the company, and Bloomberg spoke with multiple anonymous sources who said that the move is under serious consideration—though "a decision hasn't been made." Apparently, it may come down to Murdoch's performance in front of the U.K. Parliament on Tuesday... and it's not looking good..
News of the World phone-hacking whistleblower found dead The Guardian UK, via Alien Earth. Excerpts:
Sean Hoare, the former News of the World showbiz reporter who was the first named journalist to allege Andy Coulson was aware of phone hacking by his staff, has been found dead, the Guardian has learned.
Hoare, who worked on the Sun and the News of the World with Coulson before being dismissed for drink and drugs problems, is said to have been found dead at his Watford home.
Hertfordshire police would not confirm his identity, but the force said in a statement: "At 10.40am today [Monday 18 July] police were called to Langley Road, Watford, following the concerns for the welfare of a man who lives at an address on the street. Upon police and ambulance arrival at a property, the body of a man was found. The man was pronounced dead at the scene shortly after.
"The death is currently being treated as unexplained, but not thought to be suspicious. Police investigations into this incident are ongoing."
Hoare first made his claims in a New York Times investigation into the phone-hacking allegations at the News of the World.
He told the newspaper that not only did Coulson know of the phone hacking, but that he actively encouraged his staff to intercept the phone calls of celebrities in the pursuit of exclusives.
In a subsequent interview with the BBC he alleged that he was personally asked by his then-editor, Coulson, to tap into phones. In an interview with the PM programme he said Coulson's insistence that he didn't know about the practice was "a lie, it is simply a lie".
LulzSec hacks website of The Sun and publishes fake story about Murdoch’s death From Raw Story. Excerpts:
The infamous hacker group LulzSec made a comeback on Monday by hacking the website of the British tabloid The Sun, owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, and redirecting the frontpage to a fake story about Murdoch being found dead.
The story read: "Rupert Murdoch, the controversial media mogul, has reportedly been found dead in his garden, police announce. Murdoch, aged 80, has said to have ingested a large quantity of palladium before stumbling into his famous topiary garden late last night, passing out in the early hours of the morning."
The fake story was quickly taken down, but visitors to the site were redirected to LulzSec's Twitter feed.
The group also hacked the website of Murdoch's United Kingdom newspaper publishing division, News International.
LulzSec took responsibility on their Twitter account for defacing The Sun's website, adding that "this is only the beginning."
"Arrest us," they said. "We dare you. We are the unstoppable hacking generation and you are a wasted old sack of shit, Murdoch. ROW ROW FIGHT THE POWER!"
Sir Paul Stephenson turns on David Cameron From The Guardian UK.
Britain's top police officer resigns and turns on prime minister in dramatic escalation of the phone-hacking scandal.
In a carefully worded resignation speech that appeared aimed directly at Downing Street, Sir Paul Stephenson, the commissioner of the Metropolitan police, said the prime minister risked being "compromised" by his closeness to former News of the World editor Andy Coulson.
Number 10 stressed that David Cameron had not been pressing in private for Stephenson to stand aside. But he was caught by surprise by the attack, which came just while the prime minister was on a plane en route to South Africa.
Fuck you, Piers Morgan. I knew there was a reason I despise you.
10 Questions The MPs Will Not Ask Murdoch From Information Clearing House. Lest we forget the last decade.. Excerpts:
When Rupert Murdoch appears before the parliamentary committee on 19 July 2011, here are ten questions the MPs certainly will not ask about the relationship he had with Tony Blair during the run up to the Iraq war, when Murdoch was, in the words of Blair's former press officer Lance Price, "the third most powerful figure in the Labour government", after Blair himself and Gordon Brown.
Question excerpts:
*Your third phone call with Tony Blair within nine days took place on 19 March 2003, the day before the Iraq war started. What was it about the relationship you had with Tony Blair that made him feel it was appropriate to take a phone call from a newspaper proprietor just hours prior to the most momentous decision a prime minister can make: ordering the country's armed forces to war?
*When the United Nations inspectors under Hans Blix could find no evidence of Iraq having weapons of mass destruction, the coverage in your newspapers bordered on hysteria -- "HE'S GOT 'EM. LET'S GET HIM" screamed the Sun headline. When it was later shown beyond dispute that the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq never existed, did you not feel that News International should have issued an apology for promoting a lie to justify an illegal war?
Beste is right: These questions will never be asked.
Rupert Murdoch: what will MPs do without someone to fear? The Guardian UK. Excerpts:
You know the liberating feeling when someone unpopular leaves the room and everyone breathes a sigh of relief before openly discussing how much they dislike them? I don't. What's it like? What do people say? I only ever catch the odd whisper as the door shuts behind me. I'd love to hear the full conversation. Fortunately, watching Britain's politicians queue up to denounce Rupert Murdoch has given me a taste of how such talk might play out.
This scandal is metastasizing at an astonishing rate. What Happens Next?
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